


we have never been happier

by aelins



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Stripper/Exotic Dancer, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelins/pseuds/aelins
Summary: Feyre strips to pay tuition. Rhysand gets her out of the club and into the Whitehouse
Relationships: Feyre Archeron/Rhysand
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	we have never been happier

I was a stripper, just a college girl trying to pay tuition. None of my friends or sisters knew I was a stripper. By day I was Feyre Archeron, medical school student at Harvard, and by night… by night I was Tiffany. Scantily clad in a uniform that barely covered my nipples and a thong bikini bottom that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. 

Every place like this had regulars, most of which were not my type or even within my age range. We had good bouncers though if anyone got handsy they were out on their ass in a minute. There was a guy, probably five or so years older than me that had been coming to my shows regularly. 

At first, he put ones in my thong, then tens and twenties. I would go home and count my take and since this guy had started coming to my financial flexibility had gotten much better. 

I was on tonight. I shimmied around the pole and he was making eye contact with me. I flipped myself upside down and gracefully swirled around the pole. I didn’t have to see who was touching me to know that the hundred dollar bill that had been slipped into my thong was from my mystery boy. 

He crooked his finger toward him. The lighting was dim but he was… breathtakingly beautiful. He had dark hair, and the most beautiful dark eyes I’d ever seen before. If I had to guess they were ocean blue or maybe even violet. I batted my eyelashes at him. “Lap dance are fifty dollars each,” I told him. 

He tucked two hundred dollars into the very front of my bikini. 

I knew what he wanted, he wanted to fuck me. 

I straddled his lap, making sure my wet core was touching him. I shook my ass and made sure he got a good view of my breasts. His hands were white-knuckled on the chair he was sitting in. He whispered in my ear, the bouncers approached but I waved them off. 

“How do you feel about continuing this at my penthouse?” 

“I get off of my shift in 2 hours, stay here for that long, and I’ll go home with you.” 

“How much?” He asked me. 

“Five hundred to fuck. Two-fifty for a blow job.” It was steep but I suspected he had it. 

His smile made my breath catch in my throat when I looked at him. 

“I’ll be out the side entrance in two hours.” 

My shift continued. I gave a few more lap dances to some older guys, maybe in their early 40’s, which was pretty skeevy. I ended my shift by doing a complex trick on the pole. Mr. Mystery tucked two hundreds in my bikini. 

Believe it or not, I’d never had sex for money before. I was a little nervous as I changed into my street clothes and headed out the side door of the strip club. 

It was late. Fuck I had a paper due tomorrow. It just needed to be proofread but that was going to be difficult if I wasn’t home to do it. 

Waiting outside of the strip club was a white Audi R8. It was extremely low to the ground and extremely sexy. The guy rolled down the window and said, “Come on.” 

I jumped in the car and he turned up the music. We headed into downtown and came across a hulking building with the words “Night Court” emblazoned at the very top of the building. 

He pulled into the parking garage. The light was extremely bright and I got a good look at him. He was tall, well-muscled and had dark blue-purple hair. I looked down and saw that he was hard already. I wondered how long he’d been wanting me? 

The elevator ride up was unremarkable. He kissed me, sweetly, a few times. I’d expected our deal to be fast and brutal. 

I stepped into his apartment, which reeked of money and good breeding and he handed me five, one hundred dollar bills. 

“Where’s the bedroom?” I asked. 

He took my hand and I followed him up some stairs and past an electric fireplace which was burning and giving off lovely heat. He had a beautiful bed, well, massive was more the word. 

I stepped forward and kissed him. He tasted like... mint, Jagermeister, and night time. I sighed and he coaxed my tongue into his mouth. He nipped and bit it and I sighed in pleasure. He sucked on my tongue and I was putty in his hands. His mouth trailed kisses down my neck, on the most sensitive parts and I moaned outright. 

“What’s your name?” He asked, looking me in the eyes with his exotic eyes. 

“Tiffany.” I breathed. 

“That’s not your real name.” He said, stifling a laugh. 

“It’s the only name you get to know me by,” I said firmly. 

“Ok.” 

“What about you, what’s your name?” I asked 

“That’s not important.” He rebutted. 

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to need a name to scream later.” 

He went momentarily silent. “Rhys.” 

I began divesting him of his clothes. His shirt went first and by the Mother, he was chiseled from marble, the image of a perfect male specimen. I suddenly felt shy. 

He took off my camisole and gloried in my breasts, they were a tad big for my frame but he seemed to like it. He took one and palmed it, then rolled my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. I whimpered and he brought his mouth down on it. His tongue did wonderful swirls on my nipple and I slid my fingers into his hair. His mouth moved to my other nipple and I gasped as his warm tongue worked on me. 

He brought his head up and I smiled at him. 

I started unbuckling his belt and undoing his pants. He was straining against the fabric and it looked like he was well hung. I pulled his pants down to his knees and he finished kicking them off. He took off my shorts and revealed that I wasn’t wearing underwear. 

He looked extremely pleased. 

“You want me to suck you?” I offered. 

“No, go lay down,” Rhys said. 

I laid down on his bed and he settled his face between my legs. I’d had enough sexual encounters to know that getting eaten out was a treat and that if this guy wanted to eat me then he was welcome to it. 

He brushed a finger to my sex and felt my wetness, I sighed and he plunged his finger inside of me, I gasped and his tongue went to work on my clit. Rhys flicked his tongue and sucked me with his lips, I felt my breath coming in short gasps and he bent his finger inside of me. 

He found something inside me that I didn’t know existed. Holy-! 

My back arched off the bed and my climax washed over me. I hadn’t meant to come so soon! I looked down at Rhys while he pulled his finger out of me and licked it.

I was about to ask him if he wanted me to blow him but he was pumping his cock in his hand and then wrapping it in a condom. He held my hand as he pushed into me and we sighed together. He was… exceptional. His strokes started out slow and teasing but he built a rhythm and before I knew it my nails were digging in his back and scraping the back of his neck. I kissed him and as he pulled away and drove home his stoke.

I looked at him in the eye and we held eye contact as he fucked me. I’d heard that you could fall in love with someone if you looked them in the eye for long enough.

This wasn't love. 

This was full-blown lust though. 

He snapped his hips into me and I cried out. My second orgasm seemed to have snook up on me. My back arched off the bed and a second later my muscles clenched down on him. I milked him for everything he was worth and felt him shake and buck with his orgasm. 

He rolled off me, pulled off the condom, and disposed of it. He kissed my cheek. 

I felt shame roll over me like a tidal wave. I’d just had extremely impressive sex but I’d been paid for it. I was a whore. 

I moved off the bed and started putting my clothes on. 

I could feel Rhys’ eyes on me. 

“You’re not staying?” 

“I’m a whore, I’m sure you have a wife or girlfriend you can rely on.” 

“I don’t.” He said bitterly. “I want you to stay.” 

“I have  _ things _ I need to do.” Don’t tell him you’re a med student! My brain was jarred by hormones and neurotransmitters telling me to stay. 

I looked at my phone, it was 5 am I could pull  _ another _ all-nighter and sleep once my paper was proofread.

“Please stay?” He sounded so vulnerable. 

My heart gave a traitorous throb in my chest. 

_ Do not stay with him!!! _ My mind begged. 

Ugh, but he was beautiful! 

I put my shoes on and made sure my clothes were on right. 

“Can I at least have your phone number?” He asked. His violet eyes shone in the dawn light. 

“Give me your phone.” I was breaking so many rules! 

He opened his phone and set it up for me to put in my contact information. I gave him my fake name and my real phone number. 

I walked out of his apartment five hundred dollars richer and infinitely sated. 

*~*~*

I had just finished a test on pathophysiology. I was starving and Nesta wanted to meet me for lunch. Nesta, my oldest sister was studying law and was in her final year. 

We went to our favorite cafe and I had half a sandwich and soup. Nesta chatted with me about some new cute guy. In passing I caught his name. Cassian? Nesta was hard to impress when it came to men. He must be quite the catch if Nesta deemed him dating material. 

It was only a week since my foray into debauchery. Rhys hadn’t texted once. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to, he was one of those guys that would too easy to have sex turn into attachment. 

Whatever happened I wasn’t going to tell my sister that I’d had sex for money. 

“You want to go for drinks tonight?” Nesta asked me. 

It was nearing summer midterms. Medical school students didn’t get the summer off and neither did law students. I was a bit overwhelmed with work, tests, papers and having a tiny social life. 

“Don’t you have shit to do?” I asked Nesta. 

“Of course I do. But why do today what you could do tomorrow?” She said. 

I sighed. Nesta was the top of her class. Her grades were more impeccable than mine. 

“Ok, sure. Is this Cassian guy coming?” I asked her. 

“I don’t know. He’s got a friend, I think his name is Azriel and he wants to invite him.” 

“Uhh, I’m not really on the market,” I said. 

“You say that like you’re fucking chattel.” Nesta chastises me. 

“Is Elain coming?” 

“Hold on let me check,” Nesta said and checked her phone. She nodded, swallowing a piece of her sandwich. “And now Cassian wants to bring his ‘older friend’” Nesta said. 

“Ew,” I say quickly. “What is he like thirty-five or forty?” 

“Take a look.” She said, shoving her phone in my face. 

I recognize the sharpness of his jaw, the blue-purple hair, and the violet eyes immediately. The breath leaves my chest in a hurry. 

Rhys. 

“Who’s he?” I said trying to hold the anticipation from my voice. 

“Some rich guy they’ve been friends with for a while. I don’t know the deets but I’d tap that.” Nesta said. 

I go scarlet. “Maybe drinks aren’t such a good idea.” 

“Nonsense!” Nesta says. Her phone goes off and she puts down money on the table for both of our food. “I have Criminal Law 805 in fifteen minutes, gotta jet!” 

I roll my eyes. Great!  _ Great _ !

*~*~*

I get a text from Rhys just as I’m starting to fishtail braid my hair for the night. 

[123-456-7890] Hey, it’s Rhys. Apparently I’m going to be seeing you for drinks tonight. 

[Feyre Archeron] Then I guess you know my name isn’t Tiffany? 

I save his number because apparently I’m going to need it tonight. I think of the last time I saw him. My mind goes to all sorts of places I don’t want it to. 

[Rhys] I always knew your name wasn’t Tiffany. Please let me buy you a couple of drinks.

[Feyre Archeron] Maybeeee. 

I turn my phone on silent and continue to braid my hair. I’m wearing a cocktail dress, deep blue with sparkly thread sewn in. It fits perfectly and shows off all the right assets. 

I apply kohl eyeliner, mascara, and deep red lipstick. It’s a much more respectable look than the fake eyelashes and excessive makeup I wear at the club. 

I’m meeting everyone at the bar so I order an Uber and go wait outside my apartment for it. I check my phone and Rhys, if that’s even his name, has sent me a picture of him in his suit. It’s extremely fetching and I feel my traitorous heart rattling in my chest, like a small bird in a cage. 

The Uber comes and I’m off. 

When the guy pulls up at the bar I give him a five-dollar tip and slide out. Waiting in front of the club are my two sisters, dressed impeccably, and three men, only one of which, I recognize. 

I go over and hug my sisters. I catch Nesta holding Cassian’s hand. Cassian is at least six-foot-five, and his friend Azriel is a sturdy six-foot-three. 

Nesta stepped forward and smiled at me. She gave everyone introductions and when she comes to Rhys, I paled. 

“This is Rhysand, he’s a Massachusetts Senator,” Nesta says. 

My hand is limp and I’m gulping like a fish out of water when he shakes my hand. 

Subtly he wraps his arm around my lower back and leads me into the club. 

We go to the bar and Rhysand orders a round of Tequila for everyone. I shoot down my shot quickly and I’m still recovering the word  _ Senator _ . 

I look over my shoulder and Rhysand is ordering food. 

Oh fuck. I didn’t eat. 

Greeeat!

“What did you order?” I ask him. 

“A grilled chicken sandwich, and it’s not for me.” 

I looked at him. “Who’s it for?” 

“You.” 

I sighed. “I’m fine really!” 

He pressed a kiss to my temple. His lips felt like starlight on my skin. The bartender comes out with a basket full of fries and a sandwich. I  _ really _ shouldn’t. 

I sigh and take a seat at the bar and eat half the sandwich and some of the fries. He finishes the rest. “So you want to drink now that you’re fed?” 

I pout at him. I lean in and whisper in his ear, “I’m a whore remember?” 

He pulls away and he doesn’t look happy. He gets the bartender’s attention and orders for me, ‘the biggest margarita you can stick in a glass’ and a double whiskey on the rocks for him. 

Nesta is dancing with Cassian, well, more like grinding. 

Elain is… kissing? Azriel? 

I leave them to it. My drink arrives and so does his whiskey. I clink glasses with him and say, “May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.” I take a sip from my glass and I know I’m going to get trashy tonight. 

“So, Senator huh?” I say slyly. 

He rubs the back of his neck and laughs nervously, “Uhh haha yeah.” 

“State or Federal?” 

He winces, “Federal.” 

“And you’re how old…?” 

“Twenty-nine.” 

“Well at least you’re not like forty.” I say. It comes out harsher than I meant it and he winced again. 

“How old are you?” He asked and I know he feared the answer. 

“Twenty-three.” I said. 

“Nesta mentioned something about you being a med student?” Rhysand asked me. 

“I am, second year.” I took a long sip of my drink. “But at twenty-nine you probably have your law degree, am I right?” 

He nodded. He leaned over to me to whisper in my ear, his breath ran over the sensitive skin there and I shuddered. “I don’t care who I am, or who you are, I want you.” He said seductively. 

“I’m not available for a repeat of last Friday.” I said firmly. 

“That’s obvious.” He said cockily. I hadn’t been watching him but he’d been drinking down his whiskey steadily and my margarita was almost gone. He got us another round. “I’m not looking for repeat of that, per se.” 

I narrowed my eyes, “What do you mean?” 

“It’s complicated and not something I’m comfortable discussing in public.” 

He was trying to lure me back to his apartment!

I looked at my phone. It was ten-thirty. The night was still very young. I groaned. I sent a group text to Nesta and Elain and told them I was going back to Rhys’ for drinks. Elain sent me back a winky emoji. 

I finished my new drink, basically chugging it down and he did the same with his whiskey. I walked out with him and he made a phone call and a black Tahoe showed up at a corner of the street, looking unassuming. 

We got in and it took us to his apartment. 

When I stepped inside I sighed. It smelled like him in here. My stupid fucking heart was doing leaps and bounds. 

“You want another drink?” 

“No thanks, I kind of chugged the last one and I don’t want to ruin your carpet.” 

He laughed, Rhys poured himself a little bit more whiskey. He shot it down and sighed. 

He came over to me and pulled my frame into his lap. 

“So I want you to listen to the whole thing before you ask any questions or beat me with your clutch.” 

I smiled at him and held tight to my clutch. There was every possiblity that I would, indeed, hit him with it. 

“So as a single, male senator, in his late twenties it doesn’t look good for me to not have a wife or fiance. I’m looking for someone to fill that role. You would, of course, be compensated generously.and expected to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The expectation would be for me to date you, publicly for six months and then propose publically at a football game. The proposal would be televised so you’d have to be convincing. You would live here after the proposal and after we are married and I am re-elected you would be free to go your own way.” 

“Would I have to move to Washington?” 

“No, you could stay here until we became engaged.” 

I swallowed hard. “How much money are we talking?” 

“I had budgeted one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. Your tuition would be paid as well as any living expenses.” 

I nodded numbly. Holy fuck. I could stop stripping, “Why me?” 

Rhys sighed. He looked guilty. “Let me see it.” 

I knew exactly what he was talking about. “No!” 

“Let me guess you don’t believe in it?” Rhysand said. 

“Of course not.” I said, dumbfounded, “No one does!” 

“Then let me see  _ it _ !” Rhysand insisted. 

I took off my heels and showed him the bottom of my foot. There, in an inky tangle of uneven lines was my soulmate mark. 

“Let me see your deadline mark.” He insisted. 

I was about to object but I held out my wrist. It read 000:00:00:00:00:00. 

My voice was unsteady when I spoke, “Let me see yours’” 

First he showed me his deadline mark which read the same as mine. 

Then he unlaced his dress shoes, took off his sock and showed me his soulmate mark. It was the same inky tangle of uneven lines. So my heart hadn’t been traitorous at all. 

  
“I saw it while you were at the club, you dance on the pole without shoes.” 

I was trying to be mad at him, desperately trying to be mad at him. I sighed. 

I leaned in and kissed him, he seemed surprised but kissed me back regardless. I kissed him deeply and held him in my arms. 

He broke away from me. “I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret.” 

I shook my head and looked ashamed. “You know we learn about them in med school? The marks? People who have a soulmate are three times more likely to live to at least ninety years old than people without them. They’re considered an anomaly in nature, only five percent of the population has them.” I prattled off. 

His fingers were toying with the zipper to my dress. 

I slipped my arms around his neck and said, “Take me to our bedroom.” 

He beamed at me. 

We passed the time that night, as if this was our last night on earth. I woke up with hickeys everywhere and a pleasurable ache between my legs. I was just waking up when he got out of bed and got down on one knee. 

I looked down at him from his bed - our bed - whatever. I had no idea who he was. I swallowed hard. 

“Feyre would you do me the incredible honor of becoming my wife?” 

All I have to say is that I cried as he slipped the ring on and I babbled, “Yes, yes, yes!” 

It was beautiful ring, clearly a family heirloom. 

*~*~*

Five years later, we have one child, a son with deep blue-purple hair and violet eyes. We have a cat and two dogs as well and you would be mistaken to think that they are not also my children. 

Rhys is running for president this year and we’re all very nervous, but hopeful. 

I have my own practice in internal medicine. We live in Washington, D.C. 

*~*~*

The year is 2024 and we are in the White House. I am Feyre Archeron, First Lady of the United States. 

No one knows our secret. Behind closed doors, he’s just Rhys to me. We’ve had to soundproof the presidential suite because Rhys has broken furniture and I may have put a stiletto heel through the drywall in the Oval office. 

We have never been happier. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> we love to see it!


End file.
